Inside the Celestia Collective in Tucson, Arizona. All images courtesy of Celestia Collective.
Arizona-based roasting company Colibri & Renard Coffee recently established its first brick-and-mortar location in Tucson, offering beans and brews inside a new collaborative business called the Celestia Collective.
Operated by a “coven” of like-minded entrepreneurs who are devotees and practitioners of modern witchcraft, Celestia leans more towards earthy and eclectic arts, crafts and spiritualism than spookiness of the cartoon Halloween variety.
“While the vibes at Celestia are definitely geared towards the witchy, weird, and queer, we also strive to be a community hub and third space for anyone who may need one, provided they abide by our code of conduct, [which] we founders wrote to ensure a safe place for the community to gather,” Cassandra Barr, owner of Colibri & Renard Coffee, told Daily Coffee News.
Witchcraft-themed literature lines a bookshelf for guests to browse while relaxing on cozy vintage chairs and tables. The walls, painted in rich purples and dark blues, are adorned with nature-focused artwork, creating a welcoming space for all.
Coffees are transformed into drinks using a La Marzocco Linea Mini, a Mazzer grinder and other brewing equipment. In a tiny loft above the bar, Barr roasts all Colibri & Renard coffees on an Ikawa sample roaster and a 500-gram-capacity Huky 500T.
“I was taught to roast in a very methodical and technical way, but over the years my roasting style has become much more intuitive and sensory-based while still managing to adhere to consistent and easily replicable metrics and roast profiles,” Barr said. “To me, roasting feels very meditative and almost like alchemy, which rolls right back to practicing witchcraft and finding magic in the seemingly mundane. I often even go so far as to acknowledge how the four elements come into play with coffee as I roast: earth, the soil; air, the altitude; fire, the roaster; water, the brew.”
Beyond coffee and gathering space, the Celestia Collective offers pastries, tattoos, books and tarot card readings. A free pantry operates on a “give what you can, take what you need” basis, and events at the alcohol-free venue are primarily donation-based or free.
Of the four Celestia Collective founders, all identify as queer and neurodivergent, with half identifying on the nonbinary spectrum. The companies involved are also 50% Latinx-owned.
“Some of us, as well as our loved ones, have disabilities; some of us have experienced poverty or homelessness. All this is to say that, collectively, we are at multiple intersections of lived experience with marginalization and it has motivated us to call people in,” said Barr. “As such, it definitely went without saying for us that this would be a safe and welcoming space for a plethora of marginalized and systemically undervalued people.”
Barr, who identifies as an “eclectic hedge witch,” co-founded the collective with Lydia Piñon, a pyrographer, digital artist and owner of merchandise company Luna Craft; Elyssa Gerber, whose art and jewelry company is called The Stitching Hour; and Torrie Duenas, owner of Monsoon Mystics Apothecary & Mercantile.
Barr has nearly 20 years of experience in coffee, including over a decade of barista work and more than seven years roasting on a Diedrich IR-12 prior to Colibri & Renard.
“It’s been really strange to have to transfer all that experience onto a much smaller machine,” said Barr. “I am hoping to upgrade to a bigger roaster soon.”
Colibri & Renard was founded in 2021 by Barr and her sister, Ellie Devereaux, owner of Devereaux’s Tattoo Parlour in Fargo, North Dakota.
“We brainstormed together and have exchanged expertise and skills with each other as part of our shared goal to bring more specialty coffee to tattoo shops and bring more art and tattoo culture into coffee shops.” said Barr. “I taught her about coffee and she taught me how to tattoo.”
Barr looks forward to using the space to connect more deeply with the Tucson coffee community, helping fellow professionals refine their palates through accessible and approachable sensory training while cultivating a better-informed local consumer culture through education and outreach.
“C&R will continue to sell whole bean coffee, loose leaf tea, drinking powders, and flavored sugar cubes online as well as in person, and we plan on hosting regular public coffee cuppings and pairings, workshops, and special events,” said Barr. “The coffee and tea are just vehicles for human connection. We ultimately exist to hold space — for each other, for our fellow artists, and for anyone who needs a place to belong.”
Colibri & Renard Coffee is located inside the Celestia Collective at 657 W. Saint Mary’s, Units C10-11, in Tucson. Tell DCN’s editors about your new coffee shop or roastery here.
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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